This talk will review the elements of this vision and describe how the scientists and engineers are collaborating with computer scientists and the IT industry to create the new e-Infrastructure. When mature, it is clear that such an infrastructure will support the creation of dynamic ‘Virtual Organisations’ and collaborative environments for many types of application in both academia and industry. This new Cyberinfrastructure will clearly be of relevance to more than just the research community and will support both the e-learning and digital library communities as well as many business applications. This technology is likely also to change the nature of scientific publication with institutional or subject repositories linked to digital archives containing the primary research data.

About the speaker

As corporate vice president for technical computing, Tony Hey coordinates efforts across Microsoft Corp. to collaborate with the global scientific community. He is a top researcher in the field of parallel computing, and his experience in applying computing technologies to scientific research helps Microsoft work with researchers worldwide in various fields of science and engineering. Before joining Microsoft, Hey worked as head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, where he helped build the department into one of the pre-eminent computer science research institutions in England. Since 2001, Hey has served as director of the UK’s e-Science Initiative, managing the government’s efforts to provide scientists and researchers with access to key computing technologies.